This past weekend, word got out that Senator Marco Rubio had reserved the Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, for an event, possibly to announce his 2016 presidential intentions. Those close to Rubio quickly tried to dispel the original Tampa Bay Times story as being false. Asked about reports he had booked the Freedom Tower in Miami on that date for an undisclosed event, Rubio said he had not reserved a specific site yet. Senator Rubio himself has been reaching out to long-time supporters and donors asking them if they could attend his April 13th event. Other staffers have been charged...

Rand Paul likes to say that the Republican Party should follow the advice of painter Robert Henri, who said people should "paint like a man coming over a hill singing." But Paul, one week away from an announcement that he is running for president, often seems like a man running down a hill so fast that his feet can't keep up with his momentum. As he prepares to take a formal step onto the biggest stage in politics, Kentucky's junior U.S. Senator has previewed his campaign message as one of "winnability." "Ted Cruz is a conservative  but it also...

Tim Cook: Apple Will Oppose Bills Like Indiana's 'Religious Freedom' Law Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Sunday broadened his criticism of a new law in Indiana, which opponents say could be used to discriminate against gay people, to other states that he says have similar laws. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law Thursday, sparking an outcry from those, including Cook, who say it could be used to protect businesses that refuse to serve gay people. The law's supporters say it will prevent the government from forcing business owners from providing services that go...

Late last summer, with midterms consuming the attention of the political class, a group of GOP activists spent two days in Des Moines trying to convince their fellow Republicans that change was coming to their party. With eyes on 2016, they attended the Iowa State Fair, talked with newspaper editorial boards, and even ventured onto conservative talk radio. To cap it off, on the last evening, supporters gathered at 801 Chophouse, the upscale watering hole of the city's political elite, as if to announce their movement had gone mainstream. That it couldn't be dismissed as fringe any longer. Their issue,...

When Sen. Rand Paul makes his first visit to Iowa as an official presidential candidate next month, he will head to the campus of the University of Iowa. The locationone of the state's biggest liberal strongholdsseems unusual for a Republican, but Paul is headed there in the hopes of appealing to a different constituency. As Paul prepares to formally enter the 2016 arena, younger conservatives are emerging as a backbone of his campaign strategy: a source not only of volunteers and energy but votes. A youth-fueled campaign, his team hopes, will also help brand him as a fresh face for...

It might be fun to poke fun at Texas Senator and GOP Presidential candidate Ted Cruz for signing up for Obamacare but he is far from alone. As a matter of fact some other top GOP candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination are right there with Cruz. In fact almost every member of the House and the Senate who have voted over 50 times to repeal Obamacare are enrolled in the plan. It is important to be clear there is no such thing as being on Obamacare. Its not an insurance plan, or a single program like Medicare or Social...

Vladimir Putin has an army of professional trolls running thousand of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to flood social media with pro-Russia propaganda. Hundreds of workers are paid Ł500 a month to work exhausting 12-hour shifts bombarding the internet with comments placing Putin in a more favourable light. The trolls work under strict condition which see them banned from talking and even forging friendships with one another.

Just in case you were hidden under a rock yesterday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz officially threw his hat into a run for presidency in the 2016 election. He announced his run initially on Twitter (a nod to the younger generations) and followed it up with a speech at, of course, Liberty University. So, what is it that has the establishments on both sides of the aisle so worked up about Cruz running for President? Firstly, unlike the Jeb Bushes, Chris Christies and Hillary Clintons of the world who are expected to run (and you know how I feel about Hillary),...

<>Politico writes that Rand Paul is losing support among key followers. One of the most prominent defectors is Drew Ivers, chairman of Ron Pauls 2012 Iowa campaign, who says he will not endorse Rand Paul for president. On Tuesday, three members of Iowas Ron Paul-aligned Liberty movement  state Sen. Jason Shultz and former Iowa Republican Party central committee members Chad Steenhoek and Joel Kurtinitis  announced the same, adding that they will support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Ivers, who had dinner with Rand Paul in August, said the Kentucky senator has abandoned many of the stances that made Ivers...

Exclusive: Doug Wead says 1 candidate represents the past, the other the future. So whats the difference between Republican presidential candidates Rand Paul and Ted Cruz? Ted Cruz is running against Barack Obama. Rand Paul is running against Hillary Clinton. One represents the past. The other represents the future. Both men are U.S. senators running for president in 2016. Rand Paul is from Kentucky, Ted Cruz from Texas. (Rand Paul is expected to announce his candidacy April 9.) Both men are conservatives whose careers were launched during rise of the tea party. Both are born-again Christians. And both signed the...

When Ted Cruz officially stepped into the 2016 presidential ring this week the boo-birds attacked immediately. But it wasn't just the liberals of the mainstream media who threw bottles and chairs at the conservative Texan. It was Cruz's fellow Republicans. Is he qualified after only three years in the Senate? Where was he born again? Isn't he too aggressively Christian? Isn't he too conservative to win the general election? Shouldn't we nominate someone more moderate, someone who isn't hated by the MSM and wouldn't scare independents? Unfortunately, we're already heard lots of negative chatter - from Republicans - about...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) fired at Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), among others, calling their ideas fiscally irresponsible and dangerous to the country and just as bad as the Democrats after they voted to raise defense spending on Thursday without offsetting that with spending cuts to discretionary federal programs. Paul had introduced an amendment that would have raised defense spending, but offset that increase with cuts elsewhere, such as the Departments of Education, Energy and Commerce. That amendment competed with an amendment from Rubio that would have increased defense spending with no offsetting spending cutsjust a blanket...

The president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce questioned in a meeting with reporters Thursday whether Sen. Ted Cruzs snubbing of the groups annual summit this week marked an attempt to avoid Latinos as he runs for president. Ted Cruz chose not to come, said a visibly displeased Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I hope it is not indicative that hes backing away from the Hispanic community in order to get through the [GOP] primary. Other presidential hopefuls such as Senators Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also did not speak at...

Yes, Ted Cruz can buy insurance through Obamacare while remaining totally committed to repealing it. Just like his competitors for the 2016 presidential nomination. Cruz said Tuesday that he and his family will sign up for health insurance through the exchanges created by Obamacare, prompting plenty of chest-beating from Democrats looking to paint Cruza staunch opponent of the health care lawas a hypocrite. But Cruz isn't the only 2016 contender to turn to the exchanges. Sen. Rand Paul signed up when the marketplaces first opened. "It made me an unhappy person," he said at the time. Sen. Marco Rubio also...

Somewhere former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are having a good laugh. The onetime friendship between Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul has grown frosty as they both vie to become the leading conservative in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, the Hill reports. The Kentucky senator stepped on his Texas colleagues campaign rollout this week by questioning his electability, a move that Cruzs allies saw as a deliberate attempt to distract from his message. Well, duh. This is a contest after all. Did Cruz expect his opponents to lay off? Paul says Cruz has no appeal...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was on The Kelly File tonight to react to the news that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will seek the Republican nominee for president in 2016. Megyn Kelly asked Paul about some of his supporters who were in the audience at Cruzs announcement, sporting Stand With Rand shirts. We were glad to see them there and organized and excited about the possibility of me running, he said. Paul said that he didnt hear much that he disagreed with during Cruzs speech today. We kind of come from the same wing of the party, he said. If you...

Peggy Noonan says Clinton is Democrats presumed nominee, while Bush, Cruz, Walker and Paul will battle for GOP nod.Peggy Noonan is an author of several books on politics, religion and culture, and a conservative-leaning weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She is perhaps best known as the primary speech writer for President Ronald Reagan, for whom she had kind words while addressing a full house Tuesday at The Society of the Four Arts 700-seat Gubelmann Auditorium. Mr. Reagan was the last great gentleman of American politics, in terms of personal grace and a lovely public dignity and warmth, Noonan...

There are few people I do not take seriously in politics. Or to put it more specifically, there are few people I fully discount in the context of national elections. Ted Cruz is one of those people. By contrast, I think it is highly unlikely that Rand Paul can make it in the GOP primaries, let alone a national election. There are so many intra-party disputes, so many iffy stories lurking in the background for him and his father and a lot more. But there are enough unexpected and cross cutting aspects to Paul that I can't be sure. Always...

Not bothering with an "exploratory committee," Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has jumped with both feet into the 2016 presidential race. Cruz openly identifies with the Tea Party, and has done so since before his upset victory in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2012, when he garnered big-name endorsements from then-Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Senator Rand Paul, former Senator Rick Santorum, and then-Senator Jim DeMint. In his speech anouncing his candidacy Monday at Liberty University in Virginia, Cruz offered the students and faculty of the conservative Christian college some red meat: Imagine abolishing the IRS.... Imagine a president...

I did not think wed be seeing Rand, of all people, making electability arguments at the expense of other candidates, but if theres any guy in the field whom Democrats would demagogue more gleefully than they would him, I suppose its Cruz. The money line here comes when he talks about not just throwing out red meat, but throwing out something intellectually enticing to people who havent been listening to our message before. Thatll be his core attack on Cruz throughout the primaries, partly of necessity since theres not much that divides them on policy (by Pauls own admission)....

Theres a reason Ted Cruz kept asking his Liberty University audience to imagine a conservative president: no one of normal college age has ever lived under one. If Cruz wins the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he will only be the third movement conservative to do so, after Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. (Liberals will count George W. Bush, but he wasnt a product of the movement in the same sense as Reagan or Goldwater even if you think he was a conservative.) Republican primary voters are starting to imagine a conservative president. In 1999, Dubya led the field by...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Megyn Kelly on Monday night that he was âgladâ to see that students at Sen. Ted Cruzâs (R-TX) presidential candidacy announcement at Liberty University were sporting âStand with Randâ t-shirts. He went after Cruz for his approach to winning votes.The event was part of the universityâs convocation, which meant all students were required to attend. Paul said those students made it clear that just because they were forced to be there does not mean they were expressing support for Cruzâs candidacy.On Cruzâs remarks, Paul said he was âtraveling and busyâ today but couldnât find much...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is framing his presidential campaign as part of a conservative crusade against the "mushy middle" of Republican politics. However, his more immediate foes are also on the right. While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has increasingly been dubbed the frontrunner in the race, he's not Cruz's main concern in the GOP primary. While Bush and another top GOP contender, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are clearly appealing to relatively moderate Republicans, Cruz is hoping to grab staunchly conservative voters who may be inclined to back a hardline candidate as an alternative. However, Cruz isn't the...

Sen. Ted Cruz no doubt wanted everything to be just right for his official presidential roll-out today at Liberty University in Virginia. He even went to the trouble of practicing everything from his wave to a kiss with his wife on Sunday. Enter a group of Rand Paul supporters. Several students wearing Stand With Rand shirts made their way into seats directly behind Cruz on stage this morning. The students' shirts were blurry yet visible in many of the shots during Cruzs speech....

Rand Paul stopped by the SXSW Festival last weekend to show the tech savvy youth of today that he is a pretty cool dude who gets it when it comes to the issues they care about like privacy and cool apps. I do Snapchat, the Republican and probable candidate for president at one point said. During an interview with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith, the Senator from Kentucky did his best to woo the young tech crowd by linking concern over NSA spying programs with the libertarian narrative of an intrusive and abusive government. He referred to those in the...

Most of the likely Republican presidential candidates are supportive of the National Security Agencys surveillance programs. But Americans who identify as Republican or lean that way appear to disagree. Thats according to a new survey from Pew Research, released on Monday, gauging post-Snowden attitudes on digital privacy and surveillance. Of respondents who were familiar with the NSA spying revelations, 70 percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican said they were losing confidence that the agencys surveillance programs served the public interest. Just 55 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said they had lost faith.... But the strong majority of...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., on Monday is expected to announce he's running for president. However well he ends up doing in the Republican primaries, one thing is for sure  the development is terrible news for Sen. Rand Paul's presidential ambitions. Whatever small chance Paul had in the 2016 presidential race was premised on his ability to reach beyond the core supporters of his father's, by articulating a message that appealed to a broader coalition of Republicans. The biggest opportunity Paul had for growth was with Tea Party voters who would be drawn to his limited government message. The biggest...

Rand Paul will formally declare his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with a five-state, five-day announcement tour next month, Republicans knowledgeable about the Kentucky senators plans told The Washington Times. Mr. Paul will make his announcement first in Louisville at noon on April 7, then head to New Hampshire on April 8, Charleston, S.C., on April 9, Iowa City on April 10 and Las Vegas on April 11. Traditionally, presidential candidates enter the race by declaring in their home state and then flying to at least two of the first four states that hold presidential preference contests the...

Ted Cruz is set to announce is candidacy for President of the United States. Rand Paul is apparently going to announce early next month before going on a campaign tour. Until today technically the only candidate was Jeb Bush, who announced late last year his intentions. At the time everyone thought that Bush was going to force everyone else to declare their candidacy early. It doesnt appear that has happened, Cruz and Paul have appeared in no rush to make a formal announcement. Scott Walker, perhaps the front runner in the race, still hasnt formally announced his candidacy and theres...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz just made it official: He's running for president. He made the announcement in a tweet, accompanied by a video, shortly after midnight, eastern time. Ted Cruz â @tedcruz I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support! (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Cruz believes he has a path to the GOP presidential nomination by winning the Tea Party vote, and doing well enough with both social conservatives and libertarians to knock out potential rivals, according to a Houston Chronicle report published over the weekend: Cruz's senior advisers, however, see a path to victory that all but ignores [the GOP...

With the formal announcement of his presidential run on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz officially kicks off his 2016 rivalry with fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul.Sen. Ted Cruz will not only become the first person to officially enter the 2016 race to the White House on Mondayhe will also formally kick off a new rivalry: Cruz v. Paul. When the Texas Republican launches his campaign for president at Liberty University, he will do so ahead of an upcoming electoral confrontation with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. Cruz and Paul are vying for the same postthe insurgent Republican frontrunnerwho will eventually face...

This year I took the SMC Republicans to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) where we heard from many conservatives who were all on the 2015 CPAC Straw Poll in which we participated. The top five winners were Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, and Jeb Bush. Paul was a hit with the large number of young people at CPAC. He said, We do a great job defending the Second Amendment, but we have to defend the whole Bill of Rights we should have speedy trials. He went on to talk about Kalief Browder who was accused...

Rand paul, a potential presidential candidate, seems to be getting a lot of favorable buzz and mentions in stories at breitbart lately, particularly by matthew boyles. Well, fact check these stories, because boyles may be spinning optics in rand paul's favor to generate internet buzz.

I don't know too much about Jim Rickards, just found this to be an interesting video about the overall economy and some tidbits about what our government agencies are up to. The video is a 45 minutes long interview of sorts and discussion. Just posting in the event other are interested.

The conservative Club For Growth released its annual scorecard for 2013 on Monday, bestowing two Republican U.S. senators â Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah â and four GOP congressmen with 100 percent ratings for their voting records âbased on issues relating to limited government and economic growth.âThe four congressmen with perfect ratings for 2013 are Republican Reps. Matt Salmon, Trent Franks and David Schweikert of Arizona and Tom McClintock of California. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan got a 99 percent rating in 2013 âbut because of rounding has a 100 percent LifeScore,â the group said.â2013 saw...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) argued for criminal justice reform at a historically black college in Maryland on Friday, in what has become a staple of his message to young voters and minorities ahead of a potential presidential run in 2016. Paul, who has frequently nodded to Martin Luther King, Jr.s idea that there are two Americas, said in his speech at Bowie State University theres one America where citizens are free to pursue their lives freely, and one where the federal government piles on with unnecessary laws, burdensome fines and regulations, and overly strict sentencing guidelines that contribute to keeping...

I guess this makes sense? Pauls got the same problem here as he has on most issues not related to cutting spending, trying to find a spot on the Venn diagram where libertarians and conservatives overlap. He signed Cottons letter, obviously, because he knows hell be attacked in the primaries as a squish who cant be trusted as commander-in-chief and he cant hand any more ammo to the competition on that point. Now, when Rubio or Ted Cruz or whoever slams him for being dovish, he can point to the Cotton letter as rebuttal. Having pandered to conservatives, though,...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul joined Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand Tuesday to propose legislation to legalize medical marijuana on the federal level. The bill, termed the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act, would move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II, allow access for veterans and put a final stop to federal raids on dispensaries, among other things. This is the first time a medical marijuana bill has been introduced in the Senate, whereas the House has seen 15 pieces of legislation on marijuana reform in the last session of Congress, according to Marijuana.com. The move...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he supports creating a new nation for the Kurds in exchange for their help fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). I think they would fight like hell if we promised them a country, Paul told Breitbart News during a stop in Naples, Fla. Paul, a likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said the Kurds are the best fighters in the military campaign against ISIS and said he would support sending additional arms for the Peshmerga, the Kurds trained soldiers in Iraq and Syria. Part of the problem is the Kurds arent getting enough...

National Review writer Charles C.W. Cooke explained his new book, The Conservatarian Manifesto, on MSNBCs Morning Joe on Wednesday, claiming that Senator Rand Paul (R., KY) perhaps best represents the conservatarian political point of view. Cooke said conservatarians feel libertarian when around conservatives and conservative when around libertarians . . . They dont like libertarians on defense, they dont like libertarians on foreign policy, and theyre not sure about libertarians on abortion  abortion is the one so-called social issue that is still an outlier. But on drugs, on gay marriage, and on federalism, theyre disappointed with conservatism, he continued....

The New York Daily Newsâ Tuesday cover took a highly critical stance against senators who requested the White House in a letter turn away from its nuclear deal with Iran, slapping up pictures of Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and others above a large-font, all-caps, front-page headline: âTRAITORS.âThe accompanying story was an editorial that was titled, âUn-patriot games as Senate Republicans undermine President Obama on Iran.âEditors slammed the 47 Republicans who pointed out via letter that President Obama ought to consider the Constitution and its caveat to obtain the consent of the Senate when forging foreign agreements, and...

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has made no secret of his disdain for Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Speaking to the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) at their presidential forum, King lambasted the senators and implied they arent responsible adults. [Rand Paul] is concerned about drones, hes afraid the CIA might use drones to attack Americans drinking coffee in Starbucks, King said, drawing a few laughs from the crowd. He suggested ISIS might be further emboldened to attack America if the commander-in-chief thinks the real threat is the CIA killing Americans with drones. Then we have Ted Cruz,...

At this years CPAC, Mark Levin delivered a powerful retort to those who repeat we are a nation of immigrants in pursuit of an open borders agenda. He countered, we are not a nation of immigrants, we are a nation of citizens. Indeed, American citizenship is the bedrock of our Republic  the privilege of sharing in the decision making and destiny of the greatest nation on earth. In America, anyone can potentially become a citizen by undergoing the process and successfully obtaining approval or by being born to legal American residents. But nothing undermines the fabric of America and...

Sens. Rand Paul, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand will introduce on Tuesday a Senate bill that would legalize medical marijuana under federal law, another possible step towards relaxation of once strict policies toward the drug. The Kentucky Republican and his New Jersey and New York Democratic colleagues will propose legislation that allows states that have passed medical marijuana laws to enact those programs without operating illegally under federal law. That bill would also allow veterans in states with medical marijuana programs to receive care from the government, according to guidance issued by their offices

Senators Kristen Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and Rand Paul announced that they plan to unveil legislation that would lift the federal ban on medical marijuana on Tuesday. The bill, which adheres to the unfortunate and by no means necessary rule that all attention-grabbing legislation must feature a tortured acronym, is called the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act, and would allow patients, doctors and businesses in states that have already passed medical marijuana laws to participate in those programs without fear of federal prosecution," according to a statement released by the co-sponsors. Medical marijuana is legal in 23...

A new survey of conservative activists shows many in the movement see Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as the strongest Republican to take on Hillary Clinton in 2016. The survey wasn't scientific. But conservative activist group ForAmerica surveyed almost 10,000 of its Facebook members and more than 32 percent said Walker has the "best shot at beating Hillary Clinton" in the field, according to results shared first with National Journal. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who has never held elected office, finished in second, with nearly 25 percent of the vote. Sen. Ted Cruz (14 percent), Sen. Rand Paul (6.6 percent) and...

The Anti-Defamation League condemned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as the leading anti-Semite in America after a speech in which he blamed Israelis and Zionist Jews for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At a time when anti-Semitic attitudes are at historic lows, Farrakhans unabashed promotion of anti-Semitism is a throwback to the intolerance of another era, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement issued Thursday. Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic remarks, delivered his speech Sunday in Chicago as part of his Saviors Day 2015 sermon. It is now becoming apparent that there...